The Nature Conservancy, which maintains the preserve with other partners, describes the area:

Located in the transition zone between the
moist, heavily forested west side of the Cascades and the drier bunch grass
prairies of the east, Tom McCall Preserve comes into spectacular bloom every
spring.

Lava flows, catastrophic floods and volcanic
ash deposits shaped a mound-and-swale topography that perplexes the experts.
Earthquake sorting, freezing and thawing, erosion, soil accumulations by plants
and wildlife burrowing activities have all been suggested as having caused the
mounds.

The preserve features more than 200 plant species, including grass
widows, prairie stars, shooting stars, balsamroot, lupine and Indian paintbrush.

Scientists need more than visual observations to determine
whether glaciers, sea ice and ice shelves are growing or shrinking.

NASA makes
those measurements year after year from the air, firing 3,000 laser pulses a
second at the ground from a specially equipped P-3 Orion aircraft. It's called the Ice Bridge Mission, a six-year project that started in 2009.

The lasers give scientists a three-dimensional view of the
ice. The data is gathered each year -- March-May over Greenland and in
October-November over Antarctica.

"Communities that survive wildfires have one thing in common -- they are
prepared," said Cindy Kolomechuk, ODF's national fire plan coordinator. "Taking the time to create defensible
space around homes can make all the difference in the world."

Kolomechuk said May 3 is National Wildfire Community Preparedness Day, a good time to start creating defensible space around your home.

View full sizeTrimming trees close to homes is a proven way to keep wildfires at bay.Oregon Dept. of Forestry

It's a proven way to make it less
vulnerable to wildfire, she said.

"Defensible space"
simply means to:

-- Maintain the landscape around a home to reduce fire danger.

-- Provide safe access to firefighters so they can protect it.

"By working with your neighbors to reduce wildfire hazards," she said,
"you can help protect homes and even entire communities from future
wildfires."